MFA Houston Announces Acquisition of Over 160 Decorative Arts Objects

HOUSTON, TX.- The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (MFAH), announced the acquisition through gift and purchase of more than 160 works from the exceptional private decorative arts collection of Leatrice and Melvin Eagle, collectors based in Potomac, Maryland. The Eagle Collection represents artwork from the 1940s to today with strength in ceramics by West Coast artists, but also encompasses fiber art, furniture, glass, jewelry, metalwork, sculpture, and works on paper. While the collection is primarily American in scope, artists from [...]

Lawsuit Says Over $100 Million Art Collection is Largest Holocaust Art Claim

WASHINGTON, DC.- Heirs to the Herzog Collection, the largest private art collection in Hungary prior to World War II, filed suit in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia late yesterday to seek the return of artworks illegally held by Hungary since the Holocaust. The heirs are also demanding a full and transparent inventory of looted art from the Herzog Collection held by Hungary, marking the first time a request of this nature has ever been made [...]

Vermont Man Jailed in Vandalization of Cow Sculptures

BURLINGTON (AP).- You’ve heard of cow tipping? It really happens: A community art project that installed 37 fiberglass cows in and around Vermont’s biggest city has been plagued by vandalism, leaving four men charged, one injured — the cow he tipped broke his foot — and sponsors beefing up security. In all, six of the 600-pound sculptures have been targeted by vandals since being installed in May. “These aren’t quickie, random acts of stupidity,” said Tom Torti, president of organizer [...]

Exhibition Showcases 22 Artists, from Jasper Johns to Tara Donovan

BOSTON, MA.- Though richly varied in style, content, and medium, works on view in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (MFA), exhibition New Works: Prints, Drawings, Collages share a common thread: they are recently acquired (by purchase, gift, and bequest) and boldly inventive, created by cutting-edge American and European artists. More than 30 prints, drawings, and collages, made from 1960 to the present, are featured in the show, offering an exciting kaleidoscope of images. Many are newly created by emerging [...]

Ikon.5 architects Selected for International Architecture Award by Chicago Athenaeum

PRINCETON, NJ.- ikon.5 architects of Princeton, NJ have been awarded The International Architecture Award for 2010 by the Chicago Athenaeum: The Museum of Architecture and Design and The European Centre for Architecture Art Design and Urban Studies. Their winning project was Kirkwood Public Library, New Castle, Delaware. The International Architecture Awards are the highest and most prestigious distinguished building awards that honor new and cutting‐edge design. The annual program has become the largest and most comprehensive distinguished awards program in [...]

Negatives Verified by Team of Experts as Ansel Adams’ Work

BEVERLY HILLS (AP).- A trove of old glass negatives bought at a garage sale for $45 have been authenticated as the lost work of famed nature photographer Ansel Adams and are worth at least $200 million, an attorney for the owner said Tuesday. A team of experts concluded after an exhaustive, six-month examination that the 65 negatives are Adams’ early work, which were believed to have been destroyed in a 1937 fire at his Yosemite National Park studio, Arnold Peter [...]

Art Funded Works by William McTaggart Shown in Centenary Celebration at Kirkcaldy Museum and Art Gallery

KIRKCALDY.- Kirkcaldy Museum and Art Gallery is this month marking the centenary of Scottish artist William McTaggart’s death with an exhibition celebrating his work. McTaggart’s Children will showcase his beautiful paintings of children in sunny cornfields and next to stormy seas. It is open from now until 13 October. The exhibition contains 12 paintings which were bought with assistance from membership charity the Art Fund in 1964. They were acquired when over 100 paintings amassed by a local collector were [...]

Painting at Center of Caravaggio Mystery Unveiled in Rome

ROME (AP).- Art officials on Tuesday unveiled the painting at the center of the latest Caravaggio mystery, after the Vatican newspaper first suggested and then denied that the canvas was the work of the Italian master. The “Martyrdom of St. Lawrence” will now be subjected to X-rays and other analyses to ascertain its attribution. But art officials and scholars attending the unveiling agreed the painting did not look like a Caravaggio — but rather like the work of one or [...]

Mexican Authorities Recover 144 Original Pre-Columbian Pieces and Colonial Religious Works

MEXICO CITY.- The largest recovery of cultural property that had been illegally removed from churches and archaeological sites in the country, some for the last nine years, was unveiled today by officials of the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH-Conaculta) and the Attorney General the Republic (PGR). These are 14 colonial religious art works and 144 original pre-Columbian pieces, plus another 36 that are false. A selection of cultural artifacts rescued was presented to the media at the National [...]

Sotheby’s to Sell Group of Important Paintings by Mahmoud Said

LONDON.- Following the record sums achieved for paintings by leading Egyptian modern artist Mahmoud Said (1897-1964) earlier this year, Sotheby’s announced that four works by the acclaimed artist will highlight the forthcoming London sale of Modern and Contemporary Arab and Iranian Art on Wednesday, October 20, 2010. These paintings come from the collection of Dr. El- Kayem and appear on the market for the very first time since they were executed by the artist. Commenting on the sale, Lina Lazaar, [...]

Vast Collection of Works of Art by Jean Cocteau to Sell at Bonhams

LONDON.- A remarkable collection of drawings, pastels and ceramics by the French poet, filmmaker, playwright and novelist, Jean Cocteau (1889-1963), brought together by the late business tycoon and founder of Gucci timepieces Severin Wunderman (1939-2008) and kept in his 12-bedroom chateau in the South of France, is to be sold at Bonhams, Knightsbridge on 23 September 2010. Although famous for his films (Beauty and the Beast, 1946, Orpheus, 1949), novels (Les Enfants Terribles, 1929) and plays (Le Bel Indifferent, 1940), [...]

The American Landscapes of Asher B. Durand to Be Explored in Exhibition at Fundación Juan March

MADRID.- This exhibition of 140 works—including oil paintings, drawings and prints—is the first monographic exhibition devoted to Durand outside the United States, where he is recognized as a leading landscape painter and pioneer engraver. Through an important selection of works, the exhibition will reveal Durand’s unique genius as a landscape painter and portraitist. During his long artistic career Durand depicted the bucolic beauty of the American landscape. As many other nineteenth-century American artists and writers, Asher B Durand (1796-1886) embarked [...]

Underground Gallery: London Transport Posters 1920s-1940s at MoMA

NEW YORK, NY.- After World War I, striking modern posters began to transform the stations of London’s Underground, the first subterranean railway system in the world. These posters were the crucial face of a pioneering public transport campaign for coherence and efficiency that also included station architecture, signage and timetables, buses and bus stops, train interiors, upholstery, and even public trash bins. The program is still recognized as a landmark in corporate design. The principal figure in this famous campaign [...]

Dora Carrington Drawing Scooped for Cecil Higgins Art Gallery & Bedford Museum

LONDON.- Cecil Higgins Art Gallery & Bedford Museum has acquired an important topographical drawing by celebrated artist Dora Carrington (1893 – 1932), who attended Bedford High School as a child. Bedford Market (1911) was acquired at auction for £17,290, of which Art Fund members gave £5,763, the V&A/MLA Purchase Grant Fund contributed £5,544 and the Trustees of the Cecil Higgins Art Gallery gave the remainder. It is the only known work by Carrington that takes Bedford as its subject and [...]

Exclusive Catherine Opie Exhibition Opens at Los Angeles County Museum of Art

LOS ANGELES, CA.- The Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) presents Catherine Opie: Figure and Landscape, featuring recent work by the internationally renowned and LA-based photographer Catherine Opie. The show’s primary focus is high-school football, a subject that allowed Opie to explore issues of masculinity, community, and national identity. On view through October 17, 2010, the exhibition is curated by Britt Salvesen, curator and head of the Wallis Annenberg Photography Department, as well as the Prints and Drawings Department. [...]